This news item appeared on Page eleven of todays Times of India. Well, I
lie. In the news item they were not called 'Indians' but 'Dalits', that
are
Indians too, only low caste. The headlines on Page 1,though, were:
"Glitz and Grime:Bets, Lies and Tapes" - Which is the story of a dancer
that
is accused of bieng part of a betting syndicate in Cricket matches.
So which story deserved to be on Page 1 ? That in a country touted to soon
be the 3rd biggest economy in the World people are still dying of
starvation, or the one that appeared ? Malika, this why Blogs are really
im****tant in our world.
Let me quote more from the Page eleven article
"..on Friday watched people dying, with foam trickling down their mouths
and
nostrils ...In Jalhi village alone, 13 deaths have been re****ted... over
25,000 people have said to fled their homes ... in the absense of
admnistrative help,traditional healers and 'quacks' hold fort ... the
hapless villagers have turned to to sorcerers and tantriks, taking the
deaths as a curse of God"
India is fast becoming (even though it has always been feudalistic) two
nations. Those that are part of the incredible pace of development (mostly
malls and consumeristic urban societies) and the the 'forgotten people'
who
perhaps are 60% of our population.
How can we begin to change this ? To start with why do we say '15 starving
Dalits ..." in our headlines. Why not say " 15 starving Indians die after
eating carcass". Just because we give these people nomenclature different
to
ours, do they cease to become Indians ?
No, but by marginalizing them we are more comfortable as we sit down and
eat, and complain that we have eaten too much after every meal.
Shekhar
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